Privilege escalation in Cisco AsyncOS for Secure Email Gateway, Secure Web Appliance and Secure Email and Web Manager
| Risk | Low |
| Patch available | YES |
| Number of vulnerabilities | 1 |
| CVE-ID | CVE-2025-20185 |
| CWE-ID | CWE-250 |
| Exploitation vector | Local |
| Public exploit | N/A |
| Vulnerable software |
Cisco AsyncOS for Secure Email Gateway Operating systems & Components / Operating system Cisco AsyncOS for Secure Web Appliance Operating systems & Components / Operating system Cisco AsyncOS for Secure Email and Web Manager Operating systems & Components / Operating system |
| Vendor | Cisco Systems, Inc |
Security Bulletin
This security bulletin contains one low risk vulnerability.
1) Execution with unnecessary privileges
EUVDB-ID: #VU103670
Risk: Low
CVSSv4.0: 6.1 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]
CVE-ID: CVE-2025-20185
CWE-ID:
CWE-250 - Execution with Unnecessary Privileges
Exploit availability: No
DescriptionThe vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges on the system.
The vulnerability exists due to an architectural flaw in the password generation algorithm for the remote access functionality. A local user can generate a temporary password for the service account and execute arbitrary code on the system with root privileges.
MitigationInstall updates from vendor's website.
Vulnerable software versionsCisco AsyncOS for Secure Email Gateway: 15.0 - 16.0
Cisco AsyncOS for Secure Web Appliance: 15.1 - 15.2
Cisco AsyncOS for Secure Email and Web Manager: 15.0 - 16.0
CPE2.3- cpe:2.3:o:cisco_systems:cisco_asyncos_for_secure_email_gateway:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- cpe:2.3:o:cisco_systems:cisco_asyncos_for_secure_email_gateway:15.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- cpe:2.3:o:cisco_systems:cisco_asyncos_for_secure_email_gateway:15.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- cpe:2.3:o:cisco_systems:cisco_asyncos_for_secure_web_appliance:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- cpe:2.3:o:cisco_systems:cisco_asyncos_for_secure_web_appliance:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- cpe:2.3:o:cisco_systems:cisco_asyncos_for_secure_web_appliance:15.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- cpe:2.3:o:cisco_systems:cisco_asyncos_for_secure_email_and_web_manager:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- cpe:2.3:o:cisco_systems:cisco_asyncos_for_secure_email_and_web_manager:15.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- cpe:2.3:o:cisco_systems:cisco_asyncos_for_secure_email_and_web_manager:15.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Q & A
Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?
No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.
Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?
No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.
